ABSTRACT
What issues you should cover Acute low back pain is common and usually resolves spontaneously You will want to tell Mr Wrench how common low back pain is. About threequarters of people in developed countries will experience low back pain at some time in their lives.1,2 Overall about 16.5 million people in the UK suffer from back pain in any one year. Most people can deal with their back pain themselves most of the time.3 In a typical year, about three to seven million back pain sufferers are thought to consult a GP about their back pain at least once, 1.6 million people attend hospital-based outpatients, about 100 000 are admitted to hospital and 24 000 have surgery for back pain. About 7% of the adult population in the UK present to their GP with back pain in any one year.3
